It may be inconvenient, but the ongoing closure of County Road 98 between Woodland and Davis is a necessity, county officials say.

“We”re doing the road because it needs to be done,” said Panos Kokkas, Yolo County”s director of public works.

Specifically, crews are tearing apart and rebuilding segments of the well-used road between Woodland city limits and County Road 29, about four miles in length. Work on the $7.8 million project began Aug. 5 and will continue for several more months.

The reason for the effort, Kokkas said, dates back to the early 1900s. That”s when most of the county roads were first laid down – as little more than wagon trails of compacted soil, muddy in the rainy season and dusty in the summer.

Later, the roads were covered with gravel taken from nearby creeks, and eventually a thin layer of asphalt was applied.

The resulting roads are ill-suited for heavy loads or high traffic volume. And yet, CR-98 “had most of the north-south traffic,” Kokkas said. “It also had the traffic from the gravel mines to the west.”

The drainage ditches beside the roads are a problem as well. Used as irrigation ditches throughout the growing season, they end up saturating what there are of the roads” foundations, “And all the water under the road, it just tears it apart,” Kokkas said.

So, recognizing that CR-98 was deteriorating, county officials decided to update it. Currently, that means much of the stretch is impassable. “It”s torn up. It”s ground up. … It”s under construction,” Kokkas said.

The public works director explained why the new road will be better for traffic. For one, it will feature a stronger covering, with “six inches of asphalt.” And it will be wider, with “two 12-foot lanes, plus 8-foot shoulders on each side,” Kokkas said.

He added that “At every intersection – 25A, 27 and 29 – we”re going to put left-turn lanes from County Road 98 to the intersecting roads.” That way, he said, “The vehicles behind them will have a way to go around,” making it safer.

As for the ditches, they”ll still be there, but farther from the roadside. As a result, Kokkas said, “Not as much water is going to infiltrate under the pavement that carries all the loads.”

It”s a big job, and construction company Teichert has been given 100 to 185 working days to get it done.

“That means they could be working till next year,” Kokkas said. “Teichert claims they can be done this year.”

Whether they succeed in that goal depends largely on how soon the rains begin this season, he said.

Those wishing to see how construction will turn out can get a preview at the segment south of CR-29 near Plainfield Station.

Residents and farmers along CR-98 still have access to their homes and fields, Kokkas said. But the closed stretch has resulted in inconveniences for some, including bicyclists trying to pedal their way between Davis and Woodland.

The designated bike lane for that trip is on CR-99 – a road now inundated with traffic diverted from CR-98, says Woodland resident Michael Horner in a letter to The Democrat.

Last week, “a gravel truck passed me going at least 65 miles per hour a foot or so from my handlebars,” he wrote. “The wind from the truck sent me swerving this way and that, missing the rear wheel of the huge truck by inches.”

Horner called the situation on CR-99 “a prescription for disaster,” and recommended three short-term solutions to traffic there: ban gravel trucks from that road, lower the speed limit to 45 miles per hour and “clean out the bike lane so that bikes don”t have to swerve to avoid junk and dirt.” Asked about those suggestions, Kokkas said the county could not implement the first two.

“We do not have the authority to restrict the vehicle type using public roads,” he said, adding that “sharing the road with bikes is not an allowable restriction to reduce the speed limit.”

But when it comes to cleaning the bike lane, Kokkas said, “Thank you for the suggestion; we will increase the frequency of cleaning CR-99, from Woodland to CR-29, during the construction of CR-98.”